


The Chaining of Melkor

by Ancalimë (Cymbidia)



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Back to Middle-Earth Month, Back to Middle-Earth Month 2019, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 23:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17969708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cymbidia/pseuds/Ancalim%C3%AB
Summary: Chained though he may be, Melkor is ever watching, ever waiting.Written for Day 1 of B2MEM Bingo.G48: The Chaining of MelkorCard #206: The Years of the Trees





	The Chaining of Melkor

**Author's Note:**

> Happy b2mem! I got four prompts on day one, and this is a fairly short ficlet I managed to finish relative quickly - the other three got combined into something longer that needs to be proofread a bit before posting. Here's me hoping with all my fingers crossed that I'll be able to get a bingo this month! I'm not going to say I'll do a prompt from each day, that's almost impossible for me, but hopefully I'll be constantly writing and working on things for the bingo in march! I'm very excited.

It had not been a terribly long time, in the grand scale of things.

The Men counted their years by the hurtling Sun, the Elves by the waning Trees. But before the Children learned to count the days, the Ainur never had need to keep time. How long did it take, to call the world into being? A moment? An Age? No one knew - Time had not existed until the Ainur entered into the world. That was Melkor’s contribution, that things might always change, and never return to how they once were.

But how long afterwards did the Ainur frolick, making and breaking and waging war, in preparation for the Firstborn? Many ages, not long at all. That was the true spring of the world. Even Melkor did not truly understand then what shape he would take in latter days, triumphing then only in the thrill of carnage and destruction without truly understanding what it was that he wrought. All of it had been like playacting, without the Children there to tremble as the earth shook and to wail as they were slain.

How little time Melkor had, to work his true design, to take his true joys. For three empty Ages he learned bondage, and dissipation, and how it felt to understand the passage of time. And then what? Another age of the world, a few thousand years of the Sun, to do his work and revel in his craft. The only real chance he ever had to do that which his heart desired. But then, in no time at all, he was once again chained, half in the void, half out of it, beyond reach of the world, but not beyond the reach of the grinding years, each and every one of them an insult as he peered down at the gleaming jewel promised to him and his brethren. He would return. It was not such a long time to weather, until the breaking of the world. He would return.


End file.
